Abstract
According to the non-factive hypothesis, espoused by contemporary epistemologists, our ordinary practice of evaluating belief is insensitive to the truth. In other words, on the ordinary view, there is no evaluative connection between what someone should believe and whether their belief would be true. Contrary to that, the factive hypothesis holds that our ordinary practice of evaluating belief is sensitive to the truth. Results from recent behavioral studies strongly support the factive hypothesis, but this evidence was recently subjected to three new objections (Weissglass in Synthese, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-020-02584-5). This paper summarizes and responds to these objections.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
BonJour, L. (2002). Epistemology: Classic problems and contemporary responses. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
BonJour, L. (2003). Epistemic justification: Internalism vs. externalism, foundations vs. virtues. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Fumerton, R. (2006). Epistemology. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Hawkins, S. A., & Hastie, R. (1990). Hindsight: Biased judgments of past events after the outcomes are known. Psychological Bulletin, 107(3), 311–327.
Turri, J. (2013). The test of truth: An experimental investigation of the norm of assertion. Cognition, 129(2), 279–291. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2013.06.012.
Turri, J. (2015). Evidence of factive norms of belief and decision. Synthese, 192(12), 4009–4030. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-015-0727-z.
Turri, J. (2016a). The radicalism of truth-insensitive epistemology: Truth’s profound effect on the evaluation of belief. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 93(2), 348–367. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1933-1592.2002.tb00206.x.
Turri, J. (2016b). Knowledge and the norm of assertion: An essay in philosophical science. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers.
Turri, J. (2017). Experimental work on the norms of assertion. Philosophy Compass, 12(7), e12425. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.22097.
Turri, J., & Buckwalter, W. (2017). Descartes’s schism, Locke’s reunion: Completing the pragmatic turn in epistemology. American Philosophical Quarterly, 54(1), 25–46.
Weissglass, D. E. (2020). Is belief evaluation truth sensitive? A reply to Turri. Synthese. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-020-02584-5.
Acknowledgements
For helpful feedback and discussion, I thank Angelo Turri, Sarah Turri, and Daniel Weissglass. This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Canada Research Chairs program.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Turri, J. Evaluating objections to a factive norm of belief. Synthese 199, 2245–2250 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-020-02881-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-020-02881-z